Milling machines, including rotary mixers, are used in a variety of applications to prepare a ground surface for road production. Rotary mixers, in particular, may be used as a soil stabilizer to cut, mix, and pulverize native in-place soils with additives or aggregates in order to strengthen the soil for use as a base in construction. A rotary mixer may also be used as a road reclaimer to pulverize a work surface, such as asphalt, mixing the pulverized surface with an underlying base to form a new, stabilized surface on which roadways can be constructed. During operation, the rotary mixer may add asphalt emulsions, such as foamed bitumen and/or other binding agents to develop a new surface during pulverization. A foamed bitumen dispensing device may deposit or spray foamed bitumen into the mixing chamber during pulverization through a nozzle. Through successive milling operations, bitumen may harden and build up on and around the nozzles thereby contaminating or clogging the dispensing device.
Cleaning the foamed bitumen dispensing devices may be difficult and time intensive due to the position of the devices on the underside of the rotary mixer, the configuration of the devices, and the location of the nozzle opening inside the mixing chamber. Generally, the foamed bitumen dispensing devices are cleaned by dismantling part of the milling assembly of the rotary mixer during scheduled service of the entire rotary mixer. Thus, foamed bitumen dispensing devices may be underperforming between scheduled services appointments.
Some devices have been developed to clean the foamed bitumen dispensing device without undue dismantling of the rotary mixer. One example device for cleaning the nozzle of foamed bitumen dispensing device can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,887,013 which discloses a device that includes a closing element for unblocking an outlet nozzle. While the device of the '013 patent may be useful for cleaning some built-up material, there may be more efficient and effective methods and devices for cleaning and protecting the device from the hardened bitumen build up.
The foamed bitumen dispensing device of the present disclosure may solve one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the art. The current scope of the disclosure, however, is defined by the attached claims and not by the ability to solve any specific problem.